Practice routine
A 15-minute daily guitar routine for busy weeks
Fifteen minutes is enough if you train one thing: 3 minutes of warm-up, 7 minutes on a single skill and 5 minutes of music. Done every day, that is 105 minutes a week of focused practice.
The routine, minute by minute
| Min | Block | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Warm-up | Chromatics at a slow, comfortable tempo. |
| 7 | One skill | The one technique you most need this month, at your clean BPM. |
| 5 | Music | Play something you enjoy. End every session on music. |
Total: 15 minutes
Why short sessions work
Most progress comes from repetition spread over days, not from long sessions. A short daily routine is also easier to keep: the hardest part of practising is starting, and 15 minutes is easy to start.
The trick is focus. In 15 minutes there is no room for three techniques, so pick the one that matters most this month.
The routine
- Warm-up (3 min): chromatics, one note per click, hands relaxed.
- One skill (7 min): the exercise you chose for the month, at the fastest tempo you can play cleanly. Note that BPM.
- Music (5 min): a song or riff. Ending on music keeps practice fun, and fun keeps you coming back.
Choosing your one skill
- Messy notes or string noise: chromatics and alternate picking.
- Slow chord changes: switch between two chords for one minute and count the changes.
- Solos sound stiff: one pentatonic box with bends and vibrato.
- You rush or drag: any exercise with the metronome on 2 and 4.
When you have more time
On days with more time, do the 30-minute routine instead. Keep the same skill so the numbers stay comparable.
Practise it in Fretster
Each exercise comes with a metronome and timer, and saves your clean BPM so you can see the trend.
- Chromatics — 1 note/clickBasic chromatics, 1 note per click. Builds precision and helps you play relaxed.Open exercise →
- Pure techniqueWork on clean, relaxed technique. Precision matters more than speed here.Open exercise →
- Play a SongPick a song, follow its chart, and play along with the metronome.Open exercise →
Questions
- Can you get better at guitar with 15 minutes a day?
- Yes. Fifteen focused minutes every day add up to more than an hour a week, and daily repetition is what builds technique.
- What should I practise if I only have 15 minutes?
- One skill only: the one holding you back most this month, plus a short warm-up and a song at the end.